Football can be an unpredictable sport – that’s why they have the phrase “any given Sunday Saturday.” In any given weekend, for any given game, it’s possible that an upset will happen.
Look at Penn State,
who – after losing to Oregon – suffered two of the most unexpected upsets in college football history this year against UCLA and Northwestern.
These losses were, in large part, a result of former head coach James Franklin’s philosophy and mentality as it pertained to the team, but they were unexpected all the same.
Which is funny, then, when you consider that Penn State was the closest any team has come to beating Indiana – the odds-on favorite to win the national championship next Monday – all season.
For starters, the Lions lost by just 3 points, and had a 24-20 lead with 1:51 seconds to go in the game. While Ohio State would also lose by just 3 points in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Hoosiers took their lead with 8 minutes to go in the third quarter and simply strangled the Buckeyes to death after that. Instead it was a touchdown with just over 30 seconds to go, the receiver getting his toe in bounds by just about an inch or so.
For another thing, the Lions scored the most points against the Hoosiers all year, with 24. Oregon managed 22 in a 34-point loss in the playoffs, and then 20 in a 10-point loss in the regular season. But your humble Nittany Lions managed 24.
This is a “what if” post. What if Penn State had managed to knock off Indiana? Or, going back farther, what if the Oregon running back’s knee hadn’t grazed a single blade of grass, and the momentum-shifting fumble had counted? Would the Lions have then rattled off 5 additional losses in a row, all of which by 1 score except for the OSU game?
Would the OSU game have gone differently? Would the Indiana game?
Of course, we’ll never know. It became apparent, to me at least in the end, that James Franklin’s philosophy just wasn’t going to be enough at Penn State to win it all. So if not this season, then eventually the rails would come off and we’d be sitting here wondering “what if” some other year.
But in a game of inches, Penn State was within just a couple of those of knocking off two different playoff semifinalists, including the team most everyone is predicting will win the national championship next week.
What a wild sport.
